Officers Link Gun To Theft Search For Weapon Teen Used Fruitless

The gun used to kill Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Sgt. James ``Rocky`` Hunt may have been stolen from the same development where the suspect lives, detectives say.

Officials are trying to determine if a missing .38-caliber chrome revolver used in Hunt`s death was taken in a burglary last month west of Lantana.

Authorities have yet to recover the weapon and are offering a $500 reward. Anyone with information about the gun is asked to call Sheriff`s Sgt. Craig Wiles at 688-4012 or Detective Phillip Griffith at 688-4059.

The gun is ``another piece of evidence`` prosecutors can use should the case go to trial, Sheriff`s Detective Sgt. Ken Deischer said.

Hunt had stopped four teens on the night of Feb. 25 after checking out a false burglar alarm at a nearby Barnett Bank. Detectives say Nicholas Hardy, 18, used a .38-caliber gun to shoot Hunt. He then grabbed Hunt`s service revolver, fled, and, shortly afterward, shot himself in the mouth.

The bullet exited the top of his head, according to Kristin Benz, spokeswoman for Delray Community Hospital. Hardy is in serious condition there.

Detectives have recovered a .22-caliber rifle from a stolen Cadillac thought to have been used by Hardy and two other teens in drive-by shootings before Hunt`s death.

The rifle and the .38-caliber gun may have been taken on Feb. 12 in a residential burglary in Concept Homes west of Lantana, where Hardy and the other teens detained by Hunt on Feb. 25 live, Deischer said.

Despite the missing gun, detectives, using statements from the other teens stopped by Hunt, have charged Hardy with Hunt`s slaying on Jog Road south of Lantana Road.

Deputies say that when Hunt confronted Hardy and the other teens, ages 19, 15, and 14, he apparently did not connect any of them with a series of drive- by shootings in Boynton Beach and west of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.

The 14-year-old who was with Hardy, along with a 17-year-old who was not with the group that night, have been charged with attempted murder for the drive-by shooting on Feb. 24 of bicyclist Donald Cook on Military Trail north of Okeechobee Boulevard.

Cook, 43, was in critical condition on Wednesday at St. Mary`s Hospital in West Palm Beach.